When I had finished watching this I was not quite sure why I had done so. It did not really say anything new about the terrible case but on reflection I think that the film was not so much about Saville’s crimes but about grooming – and the way that Saville groomed everyone, particular the upper echelons of the establishment as means to terrible ends. The film did not mention the necrophilia accusations for some reason but we had ‘supped full with horrors’ by the end – but it surely should have been included – unless there was reasonable doubt about this.
The interviews with the victims were particularly powerful (understandably) but watching people who had interacted and interviewed him years ago in the light of what we now know was particularly chilling – Selina Scott for example. It was also surprising that the Louis Theroux interview and his later revisiting it was not featured as much; it seems that that was very significant and should have been a part of this. The BBC did NOT come out well out of this although I did sense that the makers did not make as much out of that as they could have done – and perhaps should have done.
The discussion of his Catholicism was however a fascinating part of the story that I did not know at all and Mark Lawson was particularly perceptive on this. I did even wonder if Saville genuinely believed that his charitable activities ‘cancelled out’ his crimes. I do not know the theology of this but it seems plausible – and particularly as he constantly over the years referred to his ‘balance sheet’ of good and bad that would be judged after his death.